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Acquiring information needed to diagnose our dogs’ problems and assess their needs is often the vet’s greatest hurdle. To illustrate, Dr. Wagner relates the following story. A colleague was questioning a client on the phone, trying to discover a cause for his dog’s anemia. Explaining that sometimes a swallowed metal object is the culprit, the vet asked, “Has your dog swallowed anything unusual?” No response. “Maybe a coin?” No dice. Feeling desperate, the vet asked, “Could we take an X-ray?” The guy on the other end suddenly said, “Hold on,” and shouted, “Hey, Ma! When’d he eat the doorknob?”

Dr. Wagner offers this wry piece of advice: if your dog has swallowed a doorknob, you might want to mention it to your vet.